Fun – Page 6 – My Toy Soldiers & Me

Greg’s parcel (Part II)

Visits: 65

Today the minis all are from BACCUS 6MM… ACW detail… and a Crimean War perspective.

Wargamers in this scale must understand the importance of flags: “They make the Unit”.

I embellished a bit the Rebels…

And an apology is due to Greg (done) because the colour and shade of the horses is as I asked for… the day I opened the parcel my eyes were not true to form (and in a hurry!) and I thought they were all the same shade of colour!

Once this said I still prefer the ACW in 6MM to any other period because the size and the real uniforms go well together… Crimean and Napoleonic Units have an excess of detail very hard to “impressionistically” (pointilisme) translate to 6MM (but I can be wrong you know!… have seen marvelous painting (including faces!) of them in 6MM… it is me who do not seem able to achieve the right compromise!… but I stubbornly go on…

“MY” Royal West Kent Regiment.

Visits: 64

It sounds silly maybe, but I first bought a box of them in the old Tradition of London shop (no longer there I fear). And it expanded… and grow… and I even painted some casts myself… and asked for specials to Jack Duke (DUCAL) who obliged… and then he did the Colours… and the Band… and I did the Pioneers… and it took years to complete as it is now… and had lots of FUN doing it!

So here you have it (I did a Post showing a close up of the Band no long ago), A General’s Inspection of The Royal West Kent in 54mm (Three shelves in the small cabinet in Pal).

Enjoy!

The full set (minus some “action” minis).

Arrival of a GREG’s Parcel! (6MM). (Part I)

Visits: 67

It’s a real fest!… they do not come every day of the week you know… it had been a long wait due to initial hesitation on my part… no clear objectives… lack of suitable proxies (in my head)… and what not!… as it was the parcel had in it The Crimean Heavy Brigade of Cavalry using proxies (1854); a couple of ACW Brigades; and some Colonial Troops (Egyptians and Sudanese for Omdurman) and Gurkhas for the North Wesr Frontier… (the later from Heroic&Ros)… the bulk of it from Baccus.

I started buying painted 6MM Baccus from Greg (Robert Jackson) many years ago… to my everlasting satisfaction!… he is constantly very good on the periods I fancy and even if crossing emails with him is sometimes an exercise of laconism (mainly his) communications are also very good and he understands my needs (sometimes overcomplicated)

You must be a collector/wargamer/old-hand to understand fully the mixed emotions!

So I will give you a bunch of first pics now and a second when flags added to the ACW Rebels (lol) and a touch here and there from my hands and pleasure!

Try to enjoy as much as I do!

Graham Hilditch’s 42mm Conversions (as seen in Facebook)

Visits: 68

Quite a fascinating subject… how to build a staff around a single basic model, and that in 42mm (Britain’s smaller scale)

I have always admired Mr. Hilditch work… you can see other examples of his output in this webpage.

I think he would be glad to know that REPLICA (read Andrew Stevens) has a range of 42mm available again!… quite Britain’s style if you ask me!… so those who love that scale are in for a good time…

Enjoy!

They are all conversions from a single original mini.

SCOTT LESCH’S OWN CONVERSIONS! 54MM Toy Soldiers.

Visits: 73

Step by step guide.

Something I have tried myself quite recently… modifying ready made casts… it is fun and gratifying. I will not go as far as saying mine are “pieces uniques” but quite original sometimes!

For once this is really FUN!

Enjoy!

Final result with different heads, paintjob and self printed flags!

Collecting 54MM Toy Soldiers.

Visits: 61

When you collect in 54MM… the basic scale for that… you can do it on Military Subjects or even Civilian…

But the final choice is product of a Fun attitude!

Those are from my private Collection for once… (also tomorrow’s Post).

Enjoy!

Holmes&Watson telling Lestrade they are going to take a Hansom Cab. RPWorldModels

Policeman and Medical personnel…RP.WorldModels

My Union Army of the Potomac (6MM)

Visits: 56

It took me years of painstakingly collecting and even painting some things myself, but more than 90% the work of Robert Jackson (Greg) rgjackson100@gmail.com and Daniel Hodgson did the Ammo Wagons (Reveille chopperboydan@hotmail.com (Daniel did also all the Real State, terrain and Woods)… see ANTIETAM/SHARPSBURG Posts.

Not much to add, there are even engineers in shirtsleeves…

Enjoy!

PS: By the end of the ACW the Union Cavalry alone had more men that the whole Confederate Army… so… better refight 1862-1863

Detail (mainly Baccus but some Rapier included for variety and because they do kneeling firing minis)

Division Generals (POLEMOS and Altar of Freedom do not use them… but I do)

My Confederate Army of Northern Virginia (6MM).

Visits: 59

You have recently seen them in action in the ANTIETAM/SHARPSBURG reenactment-wargame (SOLO).

I guess they are a bit difficult to photograph… one do his best believe me!

There you have the Infantry Brigades on the lower centre of the pic (by two different painters of minis), Artillery on the right of the pic, plus Cavalry mounted and dismounted, Division generals and Corps Commanders, and Robert E. Lee. There are also Cavalry fording a river (blue base) and even a stand with foreign observers.

Even if I used painting services, I added painting details here and there, and put the flags myself. At 71 I could not wait to paint them myself… lol

The standard recommended Infantry Brigade in some sets of rules are the two rows of 12 minis with 4 skirmishers in front… I did that or organize them that way until I realized there were a lot of possibilities around and the minis in the stands could add more feeling to the army. So then I did designs of my own mainly understanding that you do not need skirmishers behind earthworks and other circumstances… I hope you can zoom in on the pics. I do include one myself to make the point.

Cavalry is represented “charging” in line, but also in more conservative stances dismounted and in column of squadrons.

Some special stands to cross bridges and pontoons and of course supply wagons.

Hope you like them.

Enjoy!

Infantry Brigades (Ortodox) by Turbil Miniatures.

Much more variated use of minis in the stands by Robert Jackson (Greg)

Detail and example of different ways to enhance your units (Robert Jackson’s)

FREE BOOK : MY TOY SOLDIERS AND ME (second edition revised & updated).

Visits: 107

You can download for free on the top right column clicking on the cover… it would take a minimum of time (about 3 minutes) because of the original colour pics (BTW the captions of them are silly printed at the end of the book… I do not know why but in 2016 it seemed a good idea!).

To cut a long story short one day I read you could edit and publish a book quite easily! (autoedit a book using createspace)… just on the point of ending my professional life as an architect I decided to write a book about my experiences with Toy Soldiers (my daughter counseled that better than writing about urban planning&landscape because I would hurt less people).

So I did, for a while I sold copies through amazon.com and amazon.co.uk (and even a Spanish version in amazon.es)… guess that I sold around two or three hundred copies including the kindle version. So far so good.

Then the IRS started pestering me about my supposed benefits… the correction of the English version costed far more that the pitance I got from the book returns… and I simply retired the copies from createspace. No vanity after all… it was fun for a while.

Then one day I asked my eldest son (a computer engineer with a doctorate and several masters I do not know how to explain myself…) if it would be possible to hang in this present webpage a downloadable free copy… and he said yes no problem!

So, there you have it!… the first drafts date back to 2006 or 2008… it was first written in Spanish (my maternal language)… and I assure you nobody was interested in Spain at all!… LOL… So I translated it myself to English (where the hobby still exists… I thought!) with awful results (the black cover first edition) and then once the critics in amazon said it was good intentioned but ilegible… I decided to put a remedy and then I paid for the services of a profesional corrector (something the IRS does not take account for). and there you have it.

BTW I pay my taxes in Andorra dutifully!

What happened after 2016 is in the Facebook Group under the title (obviously) MY TOY SOLDIERS AND ME…and this webpage/blog.

Enjoy!

BACCUS BIG BASES (6MM) Small scale but think BIG!

Visits: 74

You only have to go to the BACCUS Forum… search for Baccus 6MM in Google and you will be easily directed to it.

We have an interesting debate about the use of Big Bases for wargaming (I am against it in MY games because I love flexibility and it took me ages to adopt the system one stand equals a Brigade… even if I am pretty satisfied now).

No doubt they are little works of art. Military Modeling I dare say!… but for wargames purposes I have my doubts.

Mind, always on the back of my mind there is the idea of building a unit in 1/1 ratio in 6MM… but NOT in a single base… I did it once with Captain Dajou’s third Co at Camerone in 25/28MM (Hacienda de Camarón) 1863… but they were in single bases or maximum two minis per base if I recall alright… there are pics somewhere in this webpage… search for it if interested… but I digress.

Peter Berry has it’s own legion of customers (me included) and the Forum on his web is probably one of the most satisfactory experiences for 6MM aficionados… full of ideas and suggestions of proxies for rare periods…

I thought maybe a post about it would interest the lot (or some) of you.

As you have seen in my ANTIETAM/SHARPSBURG series my biggest base is a 60×30 mm … so not going to change that for nothing!

Enjoy!